A conveyor fire that spread into coal storage hoppers at embattled Griffin Coal Ewington Mine in Collie Western Australia has resulted in damage to coal loading facilities.
The fire reportedly took several hours to control with fourteen fire crews engaged to extinguish the blaze.
WA’s Mines and Energy Minister, Bill Johnston, made a statement regarding the fire yesterday in Parliament saying “Around 2 am this morning there was a significant fire at the Griffin coal mine load-out facility located at the Ewington coal mine near Collie.”
Johnston said “No injuries have been reported. Mine safety inspectors from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety attended the site very early this morning and are investigating the incident. The fire has impacted two conveyors, conveyors 11 and 12, that feed the coal storage bins above the train load-out facility.”
He added that “the site is unable to load coal trains without this facility until the conveyors are repaired. The company is exploring other options for transporting coal to its customers. The main customers that are impacted are Worsley Alumina and Cockburn Cement.”
“The coal storage area and infrastructure used to supply the nearby Bluewaters power station was not impacted by the fire. The Public Utilities Office has been in touch with Bluewaters and indicated that it is not currently concerned about the situation. Bluewaters expects that the infrastructure can be re-energised and restarted once the area is declared safe. Accordingly, Bluewaters is expecting to experience only a one-day interruption to its coal supply and during this period it will be using coal from its stockpile.”
The Griffin Coal site emergency response team attended the scene together with the fire crews from the local area.
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